


all it takes is a little water

by independentalto



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Camp Counselor AU, F/M, Soulmate AU, everyone else gets mentioned tbh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-13 10:10:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16890573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/independentalto/pseuds/independentalto
Summary: Thanks to Daisy, Elena winds up working as at CIT at the one and only Camp SHIELD. She doesn't expect much, other than a ridiculous amount of pranks from her campers.There can't be much more than that -- right?





	1. on a grassy knoll, we begin

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sunalso](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunalso/gifts).



> Written for the wonderful sunalso for the AoS Rarepair fic exchange 2018!

The sun was  _ baking _ . 

Elena wiped a film of sweat off of her forehead and another off of her neck before adjusting her white Camp SHIELD t-shirt. All around her, tiny campers were streaming out of their parents’ cars and hiking up the grassy slope that led to the camp’s cabins. It was where they would be staying for the next eight weeks -- and where she’d be in charge of six little charges for that time. 

Who’d come up with the idea for her to work at a sleepaway camp for the summer, anyways? It wasn’t like she  _ hated  _ kids, per se, but given that her experience with them amounted to little more than making sure they didn’t put bugs in their mouth every now and then, she wasn’t sure it equaled a CIT job at a summer camp. At Camp  _ SHIELD,  _ no less, whose reputation preceded them stellarly in both job and kid satisfaction. 

How had she ended up here, again...?

“Hey, Yo-Yo!” Elena turned to see Daisy, her fellow CIT, jogging up to her. Her normally tousled brown hair tied into a braid, and she was dressed similarly with the bottom of her shirt tied into a knot on the back. “They’re comin’ up the hill, you ready?” She grinned, flicking at the black bandana that was tied around Elena’s head. “Time to put your speed to good use, Rodriguez.” 

Elena sighed. Right. Daisy was why she was here. “I beat a high school record  _ one  _ time, Johnson.” The other girl had practically begged Elena to join her for the summer upon hearing she’d had no other plans besides trying to get ahead for her next semester’s classes, much to her displeasure. 

_ “And -- and, and, and,” Daisy had said, “you get to see me every day! Not just three hours every six months!” They’d been at their local town diner for brunch during spring break, which, per tradition, they met to catch up on each other’s lives. This would be the girls’ first collegiate summer, and both of them were eager not to spend it confined within the limits of their small town. “Think of all the fun we could get up to together!”  _

_ “You know, I’m trying not to,” Elena returned with a smirk. “God knows what sort of things you’ve gotten up to this year without me.”  _

_ “I bet I can drink you under the table now,” Daisy said confidently. “By the end of next year, I’ve got money on whether I can take an AMF.”  _

_ Elena snorted. “Sure, Johnson.” The last time Daisy’d taken so much as a sip of the practically poisonous drink, she’d stood up only to fall back to the ground. “Keep telling yourself that.”  _

“You’re coming out for the CIT bonding session tonight, right?” Daisy asked between high-fiving different kids. Some of them she even greeted with hugs, and Elena tried not to feel offended that they were skirting right past her. Daisy  _ had  _ spent her last semester here working with them, after all.  “All of the counselors are going to be there.” She winked. “They’ve heard  _ quite  _ a lot about you.” 

Elena scowled playfully as another kid ran past them. “All good things, I hope, Johnson.” 

“Maybe. And who knows, maybe you’ll meet your soulmate.”

“Not this again.” Ever since Daisy had gotten the magical words said to her (“Don’t worry, a few flames can’t hurt  _ me _ ”) the first couple of weeks into their freshman year of college, she hadn’t been able to stop talking about the magic of soulmates -- nor had she been able to stop talking  _ about  _ her soulmate. “How hasn’t Robbie grown sick of you yet?” 

Truthfully, Elena couldn’t give a rat’s ass on whether she found her soulmate. As long as she had fun along the way, the words scrawled on her arm (“Slow down there, Speedy Gonzalez, we’re on the same team”) were an unfortunate birthmark. Life had too much potential to wait for one exact person. 

Speaking of potential -- “Hey, hey, you alright there?” Upon seeing a camper almost eat dirt taking their first steps up the hill, Elena scrambled down the hill to pick up their bags. “Wow, what’ve we got in here?” 

The kid handed her a sheepish smile, brown eyes crinkling through ruffled bangs. “I think my mom overpacked. She does this every year.” Packed what, bricks? Elena heaved the bag over her shoulder, trying not to wince at how she sagged down almost immediately. “Do you know where Elena’s cabin is?” 

“You’re in luck,” Elena tried to high-five them, grinning when they met her hand with a resounding CLAP. “Elena Rodriguez, the one and only.” She wasn’t sure if giving out her last name was counselor protocol, but there hadn’t exactly been a manual. “What’s your name?” 

“Piper!” The kid lit up immediately. “I’m Piper. Are you the Elena Daisy always talks about?” 

Apparently, her reputation preceded her. Elena shot a look at Daisy, who was grinning sheepishly at the top of the hill. She wondered how many kids the brunette had managed to corrupt since she’d started working there. “I hope she told you all good things, Piper.” 

“She said you were fast,” Piper said, and fell into step beside Elena. “Can I race you sometime? I’m the fastest kid in the relay races every year. Mister Phil says I could try out for the Olympics when I get older if I kept running!” 

Both of them reached the cabin and breathed a sigh of relief. The building itself was fairly unassuming -- although if they hadn’t known they were at a camp, Elena would’ve assumed they were staying in something akin to a special ops building. The outside was painted in a stark black, with only a white eagle spray-painted next to the door. Elena stared at the building: protocol had  _ definitely  _ not covered how to get into the building.

Luckily, Piper seemed to know that to do, and she stepped up to the door with a cheerful ease. “Piper Vasquez, reporting for duty!” The door swung open with ease, and Elena was left gawping in the dust. 

What had she just walked into...?

“I  _ miiiiight’ve  _ forgotten to mention that you got the high-tech cabin,” came Daisy’s laughing voice from behind her. Elena turned to see her with another camper, both of them laden with pile of bags. “At least you didn’t get the low-tech one. I’ve got three sets of padlocks and a bear trap that goes off as soon as you step in. Anyways, I’ve got another one of your campers.” She gestured to another tiny girl with blonde pigtails and a smart, red t-shirt. “This is Gertie.” 

At the sound of Gertie’s name, Piper poked her head out and waved. “Hi, Gertie!”    


“Pipes!” Bags forgotten, Gertie dashed over to give her friend a hug, and Daisy and Elena watched as the two exchanged an elaborate handshake. “Ready to beat Kara and Alex again this year?”    


“You betcha! I’ve been practicing. Have you seen Maggie yet?” 

_ “Did someone call for a margherita?”  _

“Maggie!” Gertie and Piper dashed past to another girl, who’d also dumped her bags on the ground next to theirs. All of them swept each other up in a large group hug, shrieking. 

“I’m not going to ask how they know what a margherita is,” Elena muttered to Daisy. “And didn’t they all just see each other?” 

“Some of them don’t come here year-round,” Daisy answered. “Good luck handling these ones. They’re notorious for their pranks on the other kids. I’m pretty sure I’m still mentally scarred from the time they planted a glitter bomb in the toilets.” 

“That was a good prank, and you know it!” Maggie called. Taller than the other two and with chocolate ringlets falling past her shoulders, she darted between Daisy and Elena to pick up her bags. “The look on your face was hilarious!” 

“It wasn’t hilarious when I was trying to clean glitter out of the pipes and found a dead frog instead!” Daisy retorted, sticking her tongue out childishly. Elena almost wanted to laugh at the scene: Daisy, fresh off of her first year in computer science, acting like she’d been insulted by the playground bully -- like they’d never left high school. 

“Hey, Johnson!”

“Robbie!” Surprisingly, it wasn’t Daisy that ran first to greet him, but rather Gertie, slamming into Robbie’s legs with a force that nearly sent him toppling backwards. “You’re here!” 

“I am,” Robbie chuckled, gently peeling the smaller girl off of him. “You haven’t gotten any taller since I saw you last year, I see.” 

“Hey!” 

“Don’t worry, Gert, you got bigger,” Daisy laughed. “Robbie just got smaller.” 

“Hey!” Robbie turned to his girlfriend, putting on a mockingly offended pout. “Gentle on the ego. It doesn’t like being called small, okay?” Rolling his eyes, he turned to Elena and held out his hand. “Elena Rodriguez, right? Robbie Reyes. Daisy’s told me a lot about you. Love to hear about what she got up to when you were younger.” 

Daisy’s eyes were wide. “Tell him, and I’ll leave the bear trap outside your door.” Elena just laughed and shook Robbie’s hand, the sound growing in strength when she saw the despair grow in Daisy’s eyes. “Oh, no. What have I done?” 

“Has she ever told you about the time she starred in a Chinese music video?”

_ “Elena Rodriguez, I swear to you on everything that is good and holy -- _ ” 

Robbie’s grin was positively feral. “I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure.” Elena grinned, and Daisy stared up at the sky, wondering if she could get swallowed whole by one of the random sinkholes on the grounds. 

“You and I are going to have a fun summer together, Robbie Reyes.” 


	2. how to play with fire

Aside from Gertie, Maggie and Piper, Elena’s other three campers amounted to the following: Anya, who was quiet but smart as a whip, Lexa, wth a fierceness that rivaled a mother protecting their young, and Sam, who somehow managed to balance the personalities of the other five girls. Daisy had also  _ not  _ been kidding about their propensity to prank: not even an hour after they’d settled in, there was a knock on their door. Curious, Elena had sent a look around the cabin, receiving six innocent stares in return. 

Elena opened the door to find Melinda May, the camp’s co-director, wearing the same stony stare she’d seen in orientation, but also several splats of ketchup and mustard on her starched SHIELD shirt. 

The girls’ expressions were still blanker than a blackboard. 

“Elena,” May said crisply. “I understand this is your first summer here.” Elena swallowed. When she’d met the two of them during the interview, May had seemed somewhat cold and aloof, but she’d chalked that up to the formality of the session. Now she understood what Daisy meant when she referred to May as ‘The Safe’. 

_ “Nothing comes out of her,” Daisy had whispered dramatically through a forkful of hash browns. “Nothing.”  _

“Miss May,” Elena said, shooting another look behind her. Maggie had the nerve to slowly begin unpacking her things once more. “You would be correct. Is there anything I can do for you?” 

“As you’re new to our staff this year, I thought it would be wise of me to warn you about certain...personalities in your cabin.” May chose her words carefully, as if trying to not let her face slip. “As you can see, they have a habit of displaying their antics somewhat publicly.” Elena’s eyes travelled once again over the red and yellow stains on May’s shirt. “You’re advised to keep a wise eye on your things. I do hope you enjoy working with us. Mess is in ten minutes.” 

With that, May turned and walked off, leaving Elena standing dumbfounded at the door. When she was able to pick her jaw back off the ground, she shut the door and turned back to the girls. All six of them stared back with wide doe eyes. 

“What --” Elena bit her tongue to keep from swearing. “ _ How _ ? You guys have been here the entire time!” 

Piper’s smile was bright. “You really think we tried to get to our cabin first?” 

“Did you see the look on her face?” Maggie exclaimed, and tried to approximate May’s deadpan expression. “Certain...personalities in your cabin” was all she was able to get out before bursting into laughter. “She looked so miffed!” 

Lexa traded high fives with Gertie. “The ketchup and mustard was such a good idea!” 

“That’ll take forever to get out,” Sam was giggling at a Polaroid she’d taken of May’s face, holding it up for the other girls to see. “Ketchup always takes forever to get out.” Elena had to admit, they’d pulled off a pretty ingenious prank, especially before camp had even officially started. 

Admittedly, it made her a little scared for her own things. 

“Don’t worry, we don’t hit our own,” Anya reassured her from where she was standing just outside the circle. “Unless you give us a reason to.” 

“Yeah, Elena,” Maggie declared, her hands on her hips. “Are you in or out?” 

Elena was pretty sure there was some CIT code she was breaking, but if it meant staying safe from the most mischievous band of tricksters she’d seen, so be it. “I’m in. But next time, make sure you use hot fudge sauce.” 

“Yes!” All of the girls traded high-fives. Just then, the mess horn rang, a loud blaring of an instrument that had each of them scrambling for their shoes. “C’mon, Elena, last cabin to the mess hall doesn’t get Chef Keonig’s cinnamon rolls!” 

“What’s so important about the cinnamon rolls?” Through making sure she had her records, her whistle, hat and first aid kit, Elena nearly forgot to put on her own shoes. When she opened the door, however, she quickly understood. The hill was flooded with campers and counselors alike, all of them streaming towards the central mess hall at the bottom. “Oh, dang. We gotta go.”

“FOR THE CINNAMON ROLLS!” Piper yelled before charging into the fray with a war cry. The other five followed with similar war cries, and helplessly, Elena followed, trying not to lose any of them in the fray. It quickly proved fruitless: she had to become more focused on not falling facefirst into the dirt rather than keep an eye on her girls. 

“Whoa there,” A hand pulled her up when she slipped on a patch of grass, and she turned to see Robbie, a bemused look on his face. “You can take your time. Billy always sets out rolls for the counselors after mess. They’re to die for, clearly.” 

“Aren’t you worried about losing your kids?” Elena craned her neck, trying to at least catch a glimpse of Maggie. She was the tallest -- it had to work, didn’t it? 

“Nah,” Robbie hummed. “Been here three years, and I’ve never lost a kid on this rush down the hill. Trust me, I was just like you my first time. They’ll all shove into the dining hall, scramble into their seats, and the last table with all of their members filled doesn’t get cinnamon rolls. It’s a tragic ending, really.” 

They started down the hill, being careful not to run into any kids. “So, Daisy, huh?” Elena asked casually. “How’d you two meet?” She knew the words on Daisy’s arm, but the other girl’d always been mum on how she’d actually heard them. 

“Well, it’s interesting,” Robbie chuckled. “Phil and Melinda -- the directors, I’m assuming you’ve met them -- put together the annual counselor’s retreat, and one of the challenges was to make as many s’mores as possible in ten minutes. We got paired together, I had a hand close to the fire to get the best toast, and she freaked out, convinced I was going to burn myself.” 

“How didn’t you?”

“Speed and grace.” Robbie winked at her. “Whenever I got too close, she would start swearing really loudly, and at one point, she yelled at me ‘Are you a fucking pyromaniac, Reyes?’.” He grinned. “And I said, ‘Don’t worry, a few flames can’t hurt  _ me _ ’.”  

Elena stared at him. He and Daisy really were meant for each other. “Wow.” She wasn’t sure if she’d ever met two people more dramatically idiotic. They reached the mess hall, wading through a couple of campers to pull open the door. Inside, most of the mess hall was already filled, a couple of seats missing here and there. 

She quickly searched for her table, sighing in relief when she found the round eagle logo and six heads sitting around it. “Everyone’s here, thank god.” 

Robbie searched his own table, swearing a litte. “Dammit, I’m still a couple kids short.” A frantic scan over the table. “Oh. Good. Mack and Bobbi don’t have all their kids in yet. Still got a chance.” He turned back to Elena. “Mack and Bobbi are a couple of other counselors. You’ll meet them tonight at the CIT session. You’re coming, right?” 

“Apparently so.” 

“See you then, Rodriguez,” Robbie sent her a quick salute before jogging off to his campers, while Elena joined her own. 


	3. cinnamon rolls far and wide

“Chef Keonig’s cinnamon rolls are to  _ die  _ for,” Sam said seriously. “I’ve been waiting for another one since I finished the one from last year.” Elena raised an eyebrow, but was cut off from answering by a loud gong. 

“Welcome to another year back at Camp SHIELD!” Phil Coulson, dressed in his own white shirt and dad jeans, waved. All of the kids cheered raucously, and he had to wait a little until they settled down. “Some of you might have noticed that we have a couple of new faces, so if we could give them a solid Camp SHIELD welcome!” 

The whole mess hall burst into applause, Elena’s table the loudest. Daisy and Robbie turned and gave her a thumbs-up while Elena blushed. A few moments later, Phil spoke again. 

“While we do have new faces, some things never change. One of those things being Chef Keonig’s cinnamon rolls.” A hush fell over the crowd, several campers looking around to see which table would be unlucky this summer. Elena found herself craning her neck to find out. 

Phil let the suspense build for a few seconds before continuing. “Unfortunately, it looks like Bobbi’s table won’t be getting cinnamon rolls this summer.” The whole hall let out a sympathetic ‘ooh’ at a table in the middle, their counselor (who Elena assumed was Bobbi) grimacing in embarrassment. “As for the rest of us, bring on the cinnamon rolls!” The sympathy soon turned to cheers, several kitchen staff emerging with trays bearing large, drooling cinnamon rolls, the frosting practically dripping down the sides. 

Elena suddenly understood why the stampede had been so bad. 

“Aww, yeah!” Piper exclaimed upon receiving hers. “This thing’s almost as big as my head!” She dug into hers with abandon, quickly smearing frosting and cinnamon all over her face. Maggie, Sam and Gertie all looked similar, while Anya and Lexie chose to carefully dig in with fork and knife. The rest of the dining hall was making similar noises, and Elena had to chuckle before digging in herself. 

It was an absolutely heavenly cinnamon roll. Sparks of cinnamon floated around in her mouth, poppin on her tongue before intermingling with the tangy, sweet frosting. Elena quickly swallowed her first bite before digging in once more. 

She rolled her eyes at Daisy, who was giving her a laughing look through mouthfuls of her own cinnamon roll. Sue her for enjoying her cinnamon roll, okay? It was better than the last time they’d attempted to make them -- Daisy had ended up having to call the fire department after charring her kitchen ceiling. 

Her cinnamon roll was over far too soon -- Elena found herself scraping at the plate for the leftover frosting -- and soon, each of the campers was standing, waiting to be dismissed by Phil. “I hope you all enjoyed the welcoming roll. Except Bobbi, of course,” and the whole room tittered. “Make sure you take the rest of today to get unpacked; for those of you coming back, welcome back, see all your friends, for those of you new here, make friends! The fun starts tomorrow!"

“One last thing,” Melinda leaned in, some of her cold demeanor from earlier gone. (Elena could still make out a couple of mustard stains on her shirt, though.) Her gaze flicked over to the left of the room, where a tall man with a close buzzcut was standing. “If Hunter could lead us in the camp cheer before he throws his annual hissy fit.” 

“It is  _ not --” _ Hunter sighed and climbed on the table. “Only just this once, May. Just this once.” 

“Sure, Hunter. You said that last year, too. And the year before that.” 

“Don’t pay me bloody enough for this.” Hunter took a deep breath before cupping his hands around his mouth. “ _ WHAT ARE WE?”  _

“SHIELD!” the campers answered, each of them striking a wacky pose. 

_ “WHAT ARE WE?”  _

“SHIELD!” 

“ _ TELL EM WHO WE ARE, FAR AND WIDE!”  _

“CAMP SHIELD, CAMP SHIELD, CAMP SHIELD!” 

_ “I CAN’T HEAR YOU!” _

“CAMP SHIELD!” 

_ “ONE LAST TIME!”  _

“CAMP SHIELD, CAMP SHIELD, CAMP SHIELD!” 

The whole hall burst into applause. Hunter took a deep bow and nearly fell off of the table, much to the amusement of the rest of the campers. 

“And dismissed!” Phil called into the microphone, and just like that, the single body of campers became separate once more, each of the counselors calling their kids to order and exiting the mess hall. Elena turned to her own campers, who were surprisingly all lined up. 

Well, almost all lined up. “Where’s Anya?” 

“Sorry!” Anya skidded into the line, slightly out of breath. “Bathroom break.” Her belly was suspiciously large, and while Elena was harboring the suspicion that ‘bathroom break’ was synonymous for something else, but she wouldn’t have the chance to investigate until they got back to the cabin. For now, the ‘I’m watching you’ sign would have to do. 

“Rodriguez!” Daisy was waving to her from across the room. “Back fields, 10 tonight!” Elena shot her the thumbs up before heading out. 

She’d been right about the bathroom break -- Anya’s shirt had been covering a large container of cinnamon roll frosting, which she’d acquired during the commotion with Hunter’s camp cheer. Elena had to admire the girls’ meticulous planning when she saw the container later that night; her admiration grew even more when she saw Piper whip out a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch as if they’d planned for the whole thing. 

This she could deal with. She could swear that parents sometimes fed their children candy before leaving them in Elena’s care when she babysat, and it usually took up to her last wit to get them to calm down. She  _ knew  _ how to deal with sugar-hyper children. 

That way usually meant joining them until the sugar crash occurred. 

“Alright, Piper, you and me,” Elena was bouncing on her tiptoes, sizing up the length of field they’d chosen to race on. Lexa and Sam were at the finish line, both of them doing jumping jacks and cheering loudly despite the fact that the race hadn’t even started. “First one to Lexa and Sam and back wins. You ready to prove your title as the fastest person at camp?”

“I’m leavin’ you in the dust, Elena!” Piper had attempted to tie her hair back, but let small tendrils of it fall into her face. Still, it couldn’t hide her slightly gap-toothed grin. “I’ve been fastest two years in a row!” 

“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch, kid.” She  _ knew  _ she wasn’t supposed to be getting competitive -- they were just kids after all -- but she hadn’t done all of that training in high school for nothing. “I broke a running record when I was in high school.” 

“That was in high school. You’re old now,” Gertie quipped casually. “Daisy said so.” 

“Well, you can remind Daisy that it still takes her fifteen minutes to run a mile,” Elena quipped. “Say when, Gertie.” 

“On your marks, get set....GO!” 

Elena and Piper were off, kicking up small clouds of dust behind them as they bolted down the stretch of field in the sunset. Elena settled into a rhythm and let her mind go blank, trusting her feet to do their job. 

She wondered what kind of people she’d meet at the session tonight. She’d already met Robbie, and by some extension, Bobbi and Hunter. All of them seemed to be a decent -- if not slightly outrageous -- bunch. And maybe Melinda May would turn out to be less cold than she’d appeared to Elena at the door. Just perhaps. 

“Elena! Hey, Elena!” 

Lexa and Sam’s voices didn’t register until she’d already cruised right past them, their outstretched hands untouched. “Elena, you missed!” 

Whoops. She  _ had  _ had a tendency to go past the finish line in high school. Laughing to herself, Elena doubled back, high-fiving both of them before slowing to a jog in order for Piper to catch up. Still, it was a good ten seconds before Piper crossed the finish line made up of Anya and Gertie, hands on her knees. 

Elena snagged a water bottle she’d kept in her pile before they’d come out. “You good, Pipes? C’mon, have some water.” The smaller girl chugged for several seconds before pouring some of the water on her head, still breathing heavily. “For what it’s worth, you put up a pretty good fight.” 

“You --” Piper was still wheezing. “You should race Bobbi.” Anya dutifully fetched her friend another water bottle. “Bobbi’s the only one faster than me. And you, I guess.” 

“Want a lift back to the cabin?” Piper nodded, and Elena scooped her up, slinging her over her shoulder. “I broke the record at my high school for the 100-meter dash. They called me Yo-Yo until I graduated.” 

“Can  _ we  _ call you Yo-Yo?” Lexa piped up. 

“On  _ one  _ condition,” Elena pressed her thumb into the biometric scanner and poked her way through three alarm keypads before opening the door. Piper was deposited onto the floor, and she dramatically began army crawling towards her bunk. “You don’t tell Daisy. She tried to get me to let her call me that for  _ months _ . You swear?” 

“SHIELD camper’s honor,” each girl echoed, holding out their pinkies. Elena studied them before her eyes fell on the container of frosting in the corner. 

“Do you swear on Chef Keonig’s cinnamon roll frosting?” 

The response was slightly more delayed, but in the end, a chorus of ‘SHIELD camper’s honor’ rung out in the cabin. Elena nodded. 

“Excellent. Now, you guys need nicknames, too...”


	4. it's not living if it's not with beer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elena meets several new faces -- and sees one she'd like to climb like a tree.

“I don’t understand how you did this for an entire summer,” Elena remarked later that night to Robbie. Both of them, along with Daisy, were standing in line for the one cooler of alcohol someone’d managed to sneak out to the back fields that night. “It’s only been one night and my kids snuck a container of cinnamon roll frosting out of the mess hall.” 

“Yeah, well, you have the Sneaky Six,” Daisy laughed, moving forward. “Sometimes I can’t believe their capacity for pranks. I was  _ not  _ that smart at eleven. Makes me scared to find out what they’ll be doing at eighteen.”

The field was lit by a few small bonfires that had been strategically lit around the edges, allowing for the swarm of counselors to stand around and chat, beers in hand. Originally arriving slightly apprehensively -- she hadn’t been able to go down with Daisy and Robbie due to a couple of extenuating circumstances involving a cereal spillage -- Elena had hovered, unsure whether to go in. 

But then she’d been spotted by Hunter, who had been at least a beer in by that point, and was waved into the fold. And there she was, standing in line for a beer and socializing. It was somewhere between a mild house party and a bar; she had yet to decide which one. 

“Hey Jems,” Daisy greeted easily when they reached the front of the line. “What’s crackin’, Fitz? This is Elena. We went to school together.” Elena shook hands with a wavy-haired brunette woman and curly-haired man, respectively, and tried not to raise an eyebrow when she heard their accents. “Elena, Jemma Simmons and Leo Fitz. Otherwise better known as FitzSimmons.” 

“Daisy’s told us so much about you -- well, I’m sure that you’ve heard that a lot,” Jemma laughed, and Elena was still fighting to keep a straight face. The British even  _ laughed  _ nicely. “She always did have a story about you. It’s finally nice to put a face to the name.”

“Well, I wouldn’t believe the stories if I were you,” Elena warned, examining the cooler before reaching to pull out a green apple Smirnoff Ice. She cracked it open, shaking off any excess condensation, and took a small swig. “Chances are anything she told you about burning food or messing up in front of men was actually about her.” 

“You mean she was the one who answered a pizza delivery once with a giant steak knife?” Fitz tossed Robbie a beer, letting his wrist glint a little in the moonlight. Elena caught a quick glimpse of the words ‘Asking me if I’m mitochondria because I’m the powerhouse of your cells is a terrible pick-up line’. “I knew it. Only Dais would do that sort of thing.” 

Elena surreptitiously looked towards Jemma’s wrist, and sure enough, the same pickup line was inked in a messy scrawl. “You two are --”

“Soulmates?” Jemma asked. “Yes.” She cast Fitz a fond look. “Sometimes, I’m not sure whether for better or worse.” The four of them migrated away from the cooler to a section of the fields that was less occupied. “Poor man made an arse of himself when he first tried to deliver that line. Wasn’t like it worked, anyways.” 

“Got you to notice me, didn’t it?” The two of them tapped bottles before turning to Elena. “What about you, Elena? You found your soulmate yet?” 

“Not yet,” Elena admitted, taking a larger swig of her drink. It really did go down like juice -- she’d have to be careful, her ibuprofen was in short supply for this summer -- and let the bottle hang by her thigh. “But it’s not like I’m actively looking, you know? If I find him, I find him.”

“Well, maybe you’ll find him here!” Jemma suggested. “You never know, Elena. Take a chance or two.” Somewhere across the field, the song changed to The 1975’s “It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)”, and Daisy’s eyes lit up immediately. 

“If you’ll excuse me,” she hummed, and grabbed Robbie’s hand just as the beat dropped. Elena made a similar excuse about wanting to meet other counselors and departed into the crowd, searching for partially familiar faces. 

She ran into Bobbi and Hunter together next, both of them chugging their beer as if there was some sort of contest going on. “I’m...Elena,” she offered weakly, when both of them lowered their beers and stared at her. “New around here, I guess. Daisy’s friend, because that’s what I’m known as, apparently.” 

“Yeah, I know,” Bobbi answered clippedly. “You’re the one who stole Daisy’s boyfriend back in middle school.” 

“Wha --” Elena’s cheeks grew hot. “I did  _ not _ ! And even if I  _ had _ , Dais and I have the most  _ different  _ taste in men you would ever  _ see  _ \--” She was three-quarters of the way through her indignation before she noticed Bobbi laughing, head thrown back and blonde curls shaking. 

“Oh, man, you should’ve seen yourself,” she chortled finally before putting out her hand. “Bobbi Morse. This one over here.” She jerked a thumb over at Hunter, who was trying to drain the dregs of his drink, “Lance Hunter. Manages to do something utterly stupid every year and somehow still remains hired. Like, I promise you, he’ll wake up tomorrow the biggest hungover piece of shit and still remain employed.” 

“It’s ‘cause the kids like me, Bob. You just wish they could say the same about you,” Hunter had produced another beer out of nowhere, cracked the bottle cap, and begun drinking. Bobbi just sighed and did the same. “Lance Hunter. Apologize for the cheer. It can get a little..much. But you know how it is with May.” 

Elena’s look suggested that she very much did  _ not  _ know how it was with Melinda May. 

Bobbi rolled her eyes at the other man. “May’s always wanted to have kids,” she told Elena, her voice unlike that of before. “She and Phil have been trying to have kids for the longest time. Most of the CITs here feel like they’re her kids.” Both women looked over at Hunter, who was trying to shotgun a can of Natural Light. “And in some cases, they really  _ are  _ her kids."

“So he’s always like this?” 

“Oh, yeah.” Bobbi held up her wrist. “You should’ve seen the first time we met.” Sloppily written on it was ‘Are you an angle? Because it looks like you fell from heaven.’ Elena peered at the writing, unsure whether to ask about the obvious. “Would it surprise you if I told you he was drunk when we did?”

“Rodriguez! Come get another beer with me!”

Elena looked to Hunter, then to Bobbi, then back to Hunter. “No,” she answered slowly. “It really wouldn’t.” Bobbi just offered her a knowing smile before tipping her head back and spilling a good amount of her beer into her mouth. “This might be a stupid question, but is everyone here soulmates...?”

Bobbi chuckled. “Seems like it, doesn’t it?” The pair of them looked to the source of a resounding CRASH, only to find that Robbie and Daisy had knocked over a trash can in a fit of furious kissing. Elena raised an eyebrow.  _ Well, she could get it.  _ “Yeah, SHIELD has something about that. Phil and May are soulmates, too. It’s like some sort of spell.” 

“That spell might end with me,” Elena took another sip of her beer, looking around the field to see if she’d missed anyone yet. Her gaze skipped over Fitz and Simmons laughing hysterically on a log, Hunter shotgunning another beer to the cheers of a couple of guys she’d met earlier, and of course, Robbie and Daisy in the corner. 

She frowned when she landed on a tall, dark-skinned figure striding into the cornfield. The figure in question strode over to the cooler, picked out a can of beer, walked over to Hunter, and shotgunned it with a slight ripple of his (probably chiseled, she’d have to get a solid grab of them to find out)  muscles. Elena continued to watch with a gaping jaw as he picked up Hunter with one arm and threw him over his shoulder, the smaller Brit protesting the entire time. 

“Elena...? Elena. Earth to Elena.” Elena blinked rapidly when she caught sight of Bobbi waving a hand in her face, the other woman looking amused. “You done drooling there, Rodriguez?”    


“I was not...” Elena stopped when she realized she’d had to close her mouth. “Who’s he?”  _ And what was in the water he came from _ ? she wanted to add, but that felt like a little too much for a single glance. “I don’t think I’ve seen him before.” She spared another one, her fingertips fluttering as she wondered what it’d be like to run her hand over his beard, or to have it gently graze over her skin --

“Elena.” 

“I wasn’t --” But this time it was Daisy who was trying to chide her, and it brought Elena to the fact that the rest of the counselors were packing up their things under the supervision of a scowling May and a continuously-yawning Phil. “Oh, shit.” 

Out of habit, she shoved the bottle of beer behind her back, slowly inching away with Daisy, Robbie and Bobbi. Her breath was leaden in her chest -- how was she supposed to explain getting fired on her first day for drinking on the job? Would anyone hire her after this? What would her  _ parents  _ say?

Daisy caught her panic out of the corner of her eye. “Oh, you can chill on that,” she hummed. “Phil and May don’t care, as long as no one gets sent to the hospital.” All of Elena’s limbs went slack, and she sighed in relief. She lived to do her job another day -- for now. “They just like to come out at 2AM to remind us we have to be up in four hours.” 

Fear aside, she fell into step with the other girls. FitzSimmons joined them on their right side, and the five of them began to troop up the hill. “So, who was that guy who lifted Hunter up?” Elena asked. “I didn’t see him earlier today.” She hoped her question was sly enough. 

“You mean the one you were drooling about?” Bobbi asked with a smirk, and  _ oh,  _ was she going to get it. Elena was going to personally make sure her campers targeted her in the next cabin battle. Whatever that was. “That was Mack. He got in late today ‘cause he wanted to go to his niece’s graduation.” 

A family man and ripped like a lumberjack. Elena could -- and would, she wasn’t blind -- go for that combo anyday. “Mack, huh?” She wouldn’t mind having him as a soulmate. She wouldn’t mind climbing him like a tree, either, but baby steps were probably for the best. “What?” she asked dumbly when Bobbi and Daisy burst into laughter. 

“Like a tree,” Daisy chortled, and it was only then Elena realized she’d been musing out loud. Whoops. Maybe she shouldn’t have had that last beer. “Out of all of the men we’ve ever discussed, Yo-Yo, you’ve  _ never  _ said you wanted to climb one like a tree.” 

“Yo-Yo?” Simmons piped up. “Where’s that nickname from?” 

“Oooh, ooh, let me tell this!” Suddenly, Daisy was more animated than a kid during Christmas morning. “Elena never tells this right. You have to hear it from me.”

“That’s because the real story’s like, three sentences long, Johnson. You always make it out to be this big thing.” 

“It  _ is  _ a big thing!” Daisy insisted. They began to climb the long hill, Bobbi’s long legs easily separating her from the rest of the group. “She broke our high school record for the 55 meter dash, and some old white dude got upset about it because his son had been the last one to hold the record, and so Yo-Yo had the balls to challenge his son to a race for his dignity,  _ and she won _ !” Her excited exclamation was met with several looks of disappointment. 

“She’s right, it only needed three sentences,” Robbie quipped finally. Daisy pouted. “I’m sorry, babe. But Elena destroying an old white man’s ego only needed three sentences. Badass, though.” He gave Elena an impressed nod, and they bumped fists. “Doesn’t explain why  _ Yo-Yo _ , still.” 

Elena laughed. “Daisy twisted her ankle once trying to fake her way through gym class. I was back with the nurse so fast it was like I was a yo-yo.” All of the unimpressed looks turned to curious. “Don’t tell me she told you guys it was me.” More silence. “Really? She was trying to fake her way through gym class so she could make out with this dumbass named Miles under the bleachers, and when she faked tripped, she actually fell and twisted her ankle!”

The silence was even more brutal. “Wow, Johnson,” Fitz said finally. “How haven’t you fallen down the hill yet?”

“You’ll be the one falling down the hill if you don’t shut up,” Daisy muttered darkly. “There were a couple of true stories in there, I promise.” 

“The time you supposedly ate a whole box of cream puffs without realizing,” Simmons supplied. 

“Daisy,” Elena shook her head. “She did try to blame me when her parents asked, though.” 

“The time you wiped out going down a hill on a sparkly Bratz scooter,” Fitz tried. 

“Still Daisy. Almost got hit by a truck, she did.” 

“What about the time you played Russian Roulette with hydrogen peroxide, vodka and water?” Bobbi asked. 

“Still Daisy. Had two shots worth of vodka in one go and spent a whole free period puking.” 

“Damn!” Robbie exclaimed. “Have you done  _ everything _ , Johnson?”

“And that’s my cabin,” Daisy chirped, hastily stepping over the bear trap and unlocking the door. “There will be  _ no  _ more stories about things I may or may not have done in high school, thank you very much, and goodnight.” The door slammed shut with a slight creak, and as soon as it was closed, four curious faces turned to Elena. 

“What else has she done?” 


End file.
